‘You have violated our world, and therefore, you must be punished.’
Miami, 1994. A secret U.S. Navy project is salvaging a sunken Russian submarine from the sea bed off the coast. Unfortunately, the operation triggers the rising of the last remnant of the island of Atlantis…
Partially deranged, semi-Post Apocalyptic WTF**kery from Italian director Ruggero Deodato. Dodging the bullets and gaping plot holes are Christopher Connelly, Gioia Scola and George Hilton.
Mike Ross (Connelly) and brother-in-arms, Washington (Tony King), complete an ‘off the books’ job for their mysterious boss, The Colonel (an uncredited cameo from director Deodato). Afterwards, they leave for Trinidad on their private yacht, crewed by local sailor Manuel (John Vasallo). However, they don’t get very far. Off the coast, a secret government project led by James (Michele Soavi) has commandeered an oil rig for the purpose of raising a sunken Russian nuclear sub. A preliminary dive has brought up a mysterious stone tablet and archaeologist Dr Cathy Rollins (Gioia Scola) identifies its hieroglyphs as possible proof of the existence of Atlantis. The military begins raising the Russian sub from the bottom, but almost at once, all hell breaks loose.
An island begins to rise from the sea bed, and the accompanying tsunami wrecks the oil rig. Fortunately, Connelly and King are on hand to rescue some of the survivors, including Scola, Professor Peter Saunders (George Hilton), helicopter pilot Bill Cook (Ivan Rassimov) and radar operator Frank (Giancarlo Prati). But, when they reach shore, they find Miami in flames, courtesy of the mysterious Crystal Skull (Bruce Baron) and his army of vicious bikers. After an initial confrontation where Prati is killed, Baron kidnaps Scola, taking her offshore for some unknown purpose. Connelly and King lead the remaining survivors to the new island in a desperate effort to rescue her and solve the mystery of what the hell is happening.
It’s hard to make a great deal of sense out of Deodato’s science-fiction actioner, which was written by Tito Carpi and Vincenzo Mannino. One event follows another more for the purpose of squeezing in some more machine gun fire than assembling a meaningful story. It’s far too easy to point out all the plot holes, failures in logic and sheer nonsense on display here, but it’s a film that even fails to set up its situation in a coherent manner. Apparently, Atlantis (or what’s left of it!) rises from the ocean because of a radioactive leak from the salvaged submarine. Fine. Whatever. But why does Connolly’s crewman Vasallo have a tattoo that matches the pictograms on Scolla’s mysterious tablet? And why does he suddenly jump overboard, screaming that the Atlanteans will be coming for Scolla? They are, of course, but how does he know that?
There are even more questions. As the island appears, Baron takes the mask from a wall safe, puts it on and becomes Crystal Skull. He’s in a Miami office block wearing a business suit. Within moments, he’s on the street in an open-top vehicle armed with ‘Ben Hur’ wheel spikes and accompanied by his deadly biker gang. Are these guys supposed to be Atlanteans who have been instantly transported to the streets of Miami? If so, it’s curious they are riding motorbikes and are armed with machine guns. Not very futuristic. On the other hand, if they are descendants of this lost civilisation and have been living amongst us, what have they been doing all this time? Just getting strange tattoos and kicking their heels, I guess.
The breakneck speed of early 1980s Italian movie production meant little time passed from an initial story concept to a movie’s finished release. So expository scenes may have been conceived but never filmed or left on the cutting room floor in favour of more action. However, it’s equally possible that no one really cared. This is a typical genre product of the early Video Home Rental era when stunt men somersaulting through the air near flaming oil drums was far more important than a clever script or significant character development. This is a film where almost no one ever needs to reload a weapon, and King has an inexhaustible supply of Molotov Cocktails to fling at the bad guys, no doubt handed to him by a production assistant standing just off camera. We’re not supposed to be taking any of this too seriously, of course, especially given that Baron’s biker gang look like nothing so much as a bunch of Mad Max cosplayers who have been spending far too much time messing about in their Mum’s makeup box after watching 80’s music videos on MTV.
The good news is that Deodato knows how to stage action, so although the limitations of the budget preclude any big set pieces, there’s hardly a dull moment. Connelly and King are almost constantly on the run in the city, picking up more survivors as they go. Of course, these guys and gals are just there to get killed a bit later on, usually after doing something a bit stupid. The most ambitious sequence sees our heroes hijack a bus and repel Atlantean invaders who drop from a helicopter (I guess they have those in Atlantis, too!) When they finally reach the island (which is completely covered with trees despite being underwater for a few millennia), they face off against a big metal fan and a statue that fires laser beams from its eyes. The kidnapped Scola gets an Atlantean makeover, the tablet activates a console thing, and she disappears into a wall of video screens…or something? Our heroes don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t think anyone else had much of a clue, either. I certainly didn’t.
As you may have worked out by now, this is all very silly, but the audacity of this nonsense makes it strangely enjoyable. Just when things threaten to get a little dull or start to make a little sense, Deodato rushes on to the next slice of action, leaving logic trailing in his wake. As in the best hokum, the actors play it straight, except for some friendly banter between Connelly and King. The script never bothers to explain who these soldiers of fortune are either (those machine guns are going cold, after all), but we do discover that King wants to be called Mohammed now rather than Washington. This was probably an in-joke, as King had played a mercenary called Washington in Antonio Margheriti’s war picture ‘Fuga dall’arcipelago maledetto’ (1982). In that film, his character also had another name (‘Midnight’), and both pictures had Tito Carpi behind the typewriter.
Deodato was born in 1939 in Southern Italy and entered the film business due to his friendship with the son of acclaimed director Roberto Rossellini. He began as an Assistant Director, serving his apprenticeship on pictures such as Peplum run-out ‘Ursus in the Valley of the Lions/Ursus nella valle dei leoni’ (1961) and horror ‘Castle of Blood/Danza macabra’ (1964). A similar gig on the massively successful Spaghetti Western ‘Django’ (1966) raised his profile, eventually leading to his first full directorial credit on the unbearably tedious ‘Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen/Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen’ (1968). The only way was up, but the tide only began to turn with the well-regarded crime drama ‘Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man/Uomini si nasce poliziotti si muore’ (1975). However, it was with the faux documentary horror ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980) that he made his name. It was banned in many countries and led to a famous court case where the director was accused of murdering his stars! He never attained such notoriety again but delivered several later Giallo pictures, including ‘Phantom of Death/Un delitto poco comune’ (1987) and ‘The Washing Machine/Vortice Mortale (1993). He passed away in 2022.
Under no circumstances can this be considered a good film, but if you sit back, crack a few tins and leave your critical faculties at the door, then a good time awaits.